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All Around The World – Video Feedback

Back in 1998, with the release of their album Be Here Now, Oasis were at the peak of their popularity. Their single “All Around The World” went straight to number 1 despite its long running time (it’s still the longest UK number 1 around) and it was the first song written by Noel Gallagher.

It was a fun, if simple, song with a grand feel to it, mostly thanks to it being accompanied by a 36-piece orchestra. Its reprise would end the album and mark the very last Brit-pop era Oasis song as the band’s line-up and style would change radically three years later.

The video for “All Around The World” took ages to make and demanded the time of no less than 24 computer animators. It was a trippy homage to The Beatles‘ classic Yellow Submarine flick but was it all worth it?

Let’s see.

The video opens on a creepy little girl ripping off the petals off a flower one by one:

Out of the flower, for some reason, comes a yellow flying saucer:

I’ll give you a clue as to what’s inside the flying saucer:

The Beatles?

Nope.

Good guess, though.

So it’s official: Liam Gallagher is an alien.

Come on, you could at least ACT surprised!

We also learn that what every spaceship needs, apparently, is an eye-shaped periscope:

A “beady eye”-shaped periscope, even.

I guess if there’s shoe-hand-birds flying around, it’s well worth checking out but I would have thought that the big windows on the ship would have been sufficient, frankly…

Yup, they’re shoe-hand-birds alright.

Anyway, I wonder what’s going on in London.

Old giant phones, hats, upside-down legs…

London’s random.

We see that Yellow Sub… Spaceship pass by Big Ben:

Which is a nice moment until the clock strikes three and some scary-ass cuckoo bird from Hell pops out from Big Ben and tweets in our face:

#Aaaaaaaah!!!

Believe it or not, soon after that, a bunch of crazy shit happens.

Flying spider germs:

Lightbulbs on legs:

Who comes up with this madness?!

You’d have to be drunk to think of tyres with black angel wings!

That figures.

Good thing the chief animator slipped in an auto-portrait somewhere in the vid.

Whatever, the flying Oasis saucer continues its adventure by going out to sea where it finds two interesting things:

A very familiar-looking yellow contraption:

And an old camera with a guy’s face on it fishing out a couple of giant red dice from the water:

What?

What else were you expecting?

Somehow, we then find ourselves in a Las Vegas-like setting full of mermaid-themed slot machines:

And whatever all that stuff is:

Why is everything so terrifying all around the world?

Is that the moral of the song? To never leave your house again?

I mean, if that is in fact what the track is going for then there’s no better way to put that across than by throwing at us the unsettling idea of PAPER BABIES:

Well, face-painted paper babies on pens, rather.

Someone needs to stop this…

This video’s clearly getting out of hand.

Blur! Do something!

Take it down!

Wait, never mind, it’s got attachments.

Oasis doesn’t f*** around.

We fly over a beach where all these weird dudes made of meat (well, pictures of meat) are flexing and smiling at us creepily:

*shudder*

Before we fly next to a volcano:

Which turns out to be some demon’s genitalia:

Can’t even describe what the hell I’m looking at right now.

Give me something I can talk about, something tangible I can describe.

Oh look, it’s a green elephant with loads of eyes standing over a bunch of Beetlejuice pyramids!

See, that’s what I’m talking about: if you’re gonna throw nonsense at me, at least make it describable nonsense.

The band’s saucer continues its trip around the world by passing by a bunch of pagodas:

And finally, we approach the end of our crazy ride by bumping into Noel Gallagher, who is playing guitar on top of some tower as weird, big-headed ladies fly around him.

Noel getting the spotlight?

Hm, bet Liam’s not enjoying this too much…

Liam! No!

Don’t jump, it’s not worth it!

Oh…

There HAD to be a less dramatic way of grabbing onto that ladder.

Never mind, Liam spreads the word as we get closer…

And closer…

Ok that’s too close.

Apparently not close enough, though, since we actually enter Liam’s throat and make it all the way down to his heart:

Which is… oddly heart-shaped.

You might want to get that checked out, Liam, by the way.

One final mind-f*** ends the video in style as the spaceship flies back into space and the Moon has a welcome smoke:

All’s well that ends well, I guess.

So that’s Oasis’ “All Around The World” video and I guess if making something as twisted and LSD-infused as Yellow Submarine was the goal then it’s mission accomplished.

The song itself is pretty decent and the video has a hypnotic quality to it which lures you into its demented, colourful world and doesn’t let go. Those 7 minutes end up just flying by, leaving you with enough subliminal nightmares to last you a lifetime.

As derivative as it is, it’s still good fun and fans of Terry Gilliam’s style of animation, particularly, should have a ball with it.